I'm having problems doing well with my Lawtia deck. I can't seem to win versus anything. Lawtia just doesn't seem to have very much synergy between cards like the other decks do. I know the advantage to Lawtia is to do SP draining, but I just can't seem to do that with my cards. What should I use to make ensuring victory easier, and what is the best setup for Soul cards?

For reference, I only have one copy of Annarose, four copies of LeBeau, one copy of XXXX and one copy of Noirweiden for characters, no one else. I pretty much have every other Lawtia card, however.

I don't know much about Lawt strategies, but I can tell you that you're gonna want to get rid of that extra Lebau. You can only have 3 copies of a single card in any deck so get yourself a new card by recycling it.

Hrm. Well, focusing on SP drain can be debilitating for your foe - but it won't win the day. You really need to try and set up a solid position and maintain it until night time at which point you clear out the enemy field, then spending the morning and afternoon recuperating and pulling yourself together for another night sweep.

Your two tank units are the Moonlight Warrior and Regerator Knight - with those two making up the front lines the enemy has a lot to punch through to reach the back rows where your heavy hitters (leo, annarose, lilith) are likely hiding out. If you can slam an Elite Crest between the Warrior and Knight they become a seriously painful force to be reckoned with.

I am sure you know all of this though - the hard part is getting them on the field and sustaining them. You're not refess so your units don't sit there forever, and everyone loves to pick on those key tanks. Gowen will bash you, Falkow will send everything back to your card file, Refess will laugh at your assaults and Lawtia will be pulling the same tricks and backlashes will frustrate you at the most inconvenient of times. But every deck has it's difficulties to over come against the opposition. I have found that early game domination leads itself most easily to a victory - I have been flattened by decks that baited me into triggering SCs so they could blow up my units more efficiently while they stock piled SP to drop some heavier tanks and then never lost any more LP. It was a Lawtia file that did it, though you don't have the cards to do what they did (3 Dical's, and at least 2 Annarose's - not to mention their soul card lineup was also pretty heavily stacked).

Soul Cards - that was the point of this rambling block of text - personally I like to line up cards early on that do some serious board wiping. If you are opening shade, put a [card=50]Steel[/card] or [card=51]Elena[/card] as your first card - and let that shade drop. Sure 40 damage to 2 random enemy units is well random.. but when they only have two units on the field they both get struck - and most often they both drop. So for 1 Shade and 1 LP you take down 2 units - rough trade off? Well, you just sapped 2 SP from them when they go to revive those units and do nothing on turn 3. It gives you a bit of a leap ahead. So what's second? Well, I'm a big fan of damage dealing SC's but I saw something very fancy pulled on me tonight - [card=44]Invisible Druid[/card] combined with a Soul Bind on SC number 2. It was almost like they had splashed Falkow in a sort of underhanded 2 SP "I can return whatever I want" sort of way. Of course an Assassin SC is great, especially if you have an extra shade saved from your opening to throw down in anticipation of the SC then sacrifice it to blast one of the bigger baddies on the other side. EX Lion Baron is another solid choice, as well as the Dragonrider.

So for SC's you can either go for a list that gives you 7-8 LP and is general all purpose, or you can try a combo deck where your first few units are intended to be killed as SC triggers that come with nice open abilities (like turn 1 shade -> Thunderbolt SC) then fill the last SCs with some 2 LP all purpose cards like Berserker (30 damage to random row).

Lastly, something I have found works (both from playing it and facing it) is a splash of Gowen in your Lawtia file. A couple of Dryads, Salamanders and a Magic Weapon can turn your game around in a hurry. Especially those Dryads - 10 Def goes a very long way. Regenerator is already annoying for enemies that can't seem to get it down, but one of those with 10 DEF is even more frightening.

Some useful ideas, but unfortunately I'm not the kind of person with any good luck. The best card I got in all of the packs I got was the one copy of Annarose, the rest being the typical few 3 star and mainly 2 & 1 star cards. It would be nice to try and stick to a poor man's strategy, and something close to pure Lawtia all the way through.

I know how you feel Viper, Lawtia is... difficult... without cards like Eskatia or Annarose to make you faster and stronger or turn those buffs that only happen once every 3 turns into an issue your opponent has to deal with constantly. I lose far more than I win, but I give it my best shot and sometimes I win.

One of our problems is we usually dont have a lot of SP to play with... unless its night time, spheres like Gowen and Falkow hammer our front line tanks and 2 can easily kill one if they hit the same one, further limiting the SP to use. And the Gowen and Falkow favorite starters like Kurina and Haste Soldier dont help matters... because while you can kill them, they damage you first (since you're slower) and cost nothing to bring back once you kill them.

A poor man's way to help? I think Candi's advice was good... splash with helpful low level cards from other spheres. Splash Dryads for a little DF to keep a tank alive for a hit or two more, Sylph/Undine/Song Sorceress to help speed issues. Keep trying new things and see what works. I dont know what cards you have to work with for SC but Candi's advice looks good.

I wouldnt recommend using LeBeau as a SC or at least not relying on it too heavily... as almost everyone has a counter for it now that will either negate it, kill the buffed card, or turn it into a buff for them. If you can make it work go for it, but have a backup plan if you use him for that.

Also... Norweiden I havnt found much use for aside from a very expensive board clear when combined with Counterattack. She sometimes works in your favor, because people see her and pull out something to hurt her immediately (Fire Arrow, Flesh Recycle) and if you use Counterattack immediately you take no LP hit and they wasted a card. If you dont want to use her for that then use as a SC or just leave her out. XXXX as well is sometimes difficult... he gets killed quickly usually, if they can, because of his board clearing ability. If you use him as a SC try using him as your first... put out a throw away card to set it off, and put a 2nd throw away card in your set. When it goes off it will kill your 2nd card, so put either a beneficial SC or one that will hurt/kill whatever he brings back in the 2nd slot. Putting him in a later SC slot can be dangerous to you though since it hits everything.

Example: XXXX in the first slot, gets set off by a killed Shade. Set a 2nd shade, put on the field, XXXX kills it, next turn it sets off a card like Pergerine Pladin/Larut (rare but useful), Combat Monk (not rare. Hit a row you choose for 30, will always hit something but best if your opponent puts cards on the same row), or if you want more SP to play with Witch.

A note on the Lawtia angel - she is in fact a nasty litte bugger to face (ask Shuuyu/ANIMEniac - who ran her in the tourny and scored second only being beaten out by Souldier's Falkow return), the trick is to use her only when you are well prepared - and to have a back up plan.

If you can set up a solid front line - her RNG 2 lets her sit in the middle row, a good place for her because with 20 hp three tanks getting free shots is not fun. A moonlight warrior and a crest regenerator boosted with Dryad makes a fairly sturdy wall. Norwieden slams for 50 ATK, which is only comparable to Leonardo at night and she never dies. She will likely be dropping a unit every turn, but back up plan you say? Yes, bring a Flesh Recycle, Counterattack and put Assassin as an SC - make sure if you are in a position to use her you use her *BEFORE* the assassin, because you can use the sin to remove her in a worst case scenario. Of course Counterattack is the way you really want to take her out - 50 damage field wide is nice, and if she got some shots in before she became a liability then kudos to that! What's the recycle for? Her again - though it will cost you 2 LP it's a third way to take her down (she gets 0 hp, tries to revive, you lose 1 LP and she closes -- then she goes to graveyard and you lose 1 lp -- something to note if you ever face her, Flesh Recycle A.S.A.P.).

She's not as terrible of a unit as she first appears, her ability means she always gets some action and with 50 ATK that's not action to be scoffed at. Barring Refess not many units will survive that. If you splashed Falkow (then your wall won't have the Dryad defense boost, as I don't recommend triple sphere just yet) then a Song Sorceress can speed up Moon and Soul to act much sooner than last leaving your enemies field crippled before they get to her.

The key to the angel is having her well protected, she's not a front liner. She's a very stubborn sniper who prefers to hide behind much larger allies.

I have built Lawtia decks using only the cards I got in my 2 boxes - and in both boxes the 5 star rares were Gowen and the 4 star rares did not come in large enough quantity to warrant use outside of SC line ups. I have still been successful with the deck - and it runs a lot of things people do not expect. The starter needs some love to work, and in my decks I try to avoid total dependence on night (only1 lycan, no wights etc.) so that I can be a terror at any time of day, but when nighttime arrives you best turtle up and hide.

However, there is something to be said for cards like Castle Wight - which is comparable to a Falkow tank in the day and is a totally different monster at night. I've seen Wight + Magic Weapon sitting in row 2 sniping my front line for 50 damage a round and 80 damage a night. It's as frightening picture, let me assure you.

Anyway, I'm rambling again. There is also a big long thread here somewhere about each sphere - Lawtia has one - skimming that thread may also give you some inspiration.